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Story Tensions

You ever have one of those dreams where you have to do something but something else keeps getting in the way? Maybe you’re running from a monster but you’re waist-deep in mud? Something like that happened to me last night. I hosted a party at a remote farm. The setting was perfect for a sorority party massacre a la bunches of bad ’70s slasher B-movies. As the last car was leaving, I called to the woman in the landrover, “Can I get a ride back to civilization?” She nodded but waved for me to hurry. That’s when it turned into a nightmare as the last-minute tasks were loaded up. If I didn’t finish locking up quick I would lose my ride.

As I recall, the list of scenarios was something like:


1. Check the barn for lit lanterns.
2. Check the house to make sure the water was turned off.
3. Solve the Mystery of the Old Mill with the Hardy Boys.
4. Confront a huge monster lurking in the cattle stalls.
5. Wash and dry the dishes and put them away.
6. Deal with a snake in the basement.

The tasks went on and on and, always in the background, the pressure built. I was going to lose my ride and be stuck on this Hell Farm of Eternal Night. The woman waiting in the landrover really amped up the tension and put a clock on the plot. It’s conflict and tension among believable characters that get the story engine chugging.

Anyway, all that nonsense got me thinking about the underlying themes and worries beneath the main action in my books. What’s the big fret our heroes and heroines have to deal with when other missions and side-missions are done?

Here’s my list:

1. This Plague of Days: How’s a mute kid on the spectrum going to save the world from a global pandemic of zombies?

2. AFTER Life: What’s a SWAT officer and a nanotech research scientist to do when they tap into the collective consciousness of a zombie uprising about to invade the United States?

3. Brooklyn in the Mean Time: How is such a flawed protagonist going to solve the mystery of his father’s criminal past?

4. Bigger Than Jesus: How does a hitman get out of the mob and overcome his past?

5. Higher Than Jesus: How does a hitman get past his addictions to save the girl?

6. Hollywood Jesus: Can a hitman go legit? How does he become a hero when everyone, including the FBI, is after him?

7. Wallflower: How does a failed comedian go back in time to save the world?

8. Haunting Lessons: Why is it that a young woman can see ghosts and what does a secret society of assassins have to do with it?

9. Death Lessons: The woman who sees ghosts must return to her home town find a secret weapon to deal with unearthly forces? What’s the weapon?

10. Fierce Lessons: How does a secret society of assassins deal with incursions from another dimension?

11. Dream’s Dark Flight: Why are people around the world dying in their sleep in bizarre ways? How can an NSA analyst, a doctor and a physiotherapist stop the killings from an isolation tank at Berkeley?

12. The Night Man: When a wounded warrior returns home searching for a life of peace, how can he untangle himself from dirty cops, bomb plots and the criminality of his own family?

13. Robot Planet: When the last few humans combat a robot uprising powered by the Next Intelligence, how can they win against such a powerful enemy?

14. All Empires Fall, Self-help for Stoners and Murders Among Dead Trees: How can a writer sell anthologies? Sure, there are several award-winning stories in the mix but literary anthologies aren’t huge sellers. (Self-help for Stoners is really kind of a novelty bathroom book that sells some paperbacks in the run-up to Christmas each year, so there’s that.)

15. Amid Mortal Words: If you had a book that could eliminate all the people who make the world a more dangerous place, would you? How many dead innocents would be acceptable to you?

~ I’m Robert Chazz Chute. In that dream I mentioned at the top? I missed my ride. Alas. I spend my waking hours writing apocalyptic epics, killer crime thrillers, and assorted science fiction and horror. Please click on the links to the right to pick up your next binge read. Cheers!

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What I’ve learned (and something I haven’t)

What I learned in high school:

Who do you think you are? Dream small.

What I learned in university studying journalism:

I’m on the wrong career track. I want to write for a living but I want to write stories that last.

What I learned at the Banff School of Fine Arts:

I’m much funnier than they gave me credit for in university. Maybe that was because I wasn’t so angry all the time as soon as I got out of journalism school.

What I learned in my 20s:

I used to believe a bad thing: Pay your dues. Be patient. Wait your turn.

(What was implied: “This has nothing to do with keeping us up by keeping you down.”)

What I learned in my 30s:

I wanted to be a spiritual person for the comfort. It didn’t stick because I looked honestly at all the suffering. Also, I unlearned the lesson from my 20s. Underestimating me and keeping me a second-class citizen was always about fulfilling other people’s dreams.

What I learned in my 40s:

My kids redefined love for me. They expanded my capacity.

What I’ve learned in my 50s:

Not everyone who acts like a friend really is. Unfortunately, learned that lesson before but I think this time I really get it. Betrayal sucks and sticks. Not everyone you meet along the way will stay by your side. For those who do, we cherish and support each other. We stick together.

What I know now:

Dream bigger. Ask for help. Work like hell to make it happen.

I have yet to learn:

Forgiveness. Yes, I hold grudges. In AFTER Life, the flawed hero admits that he supposes he must have forgiven somebody once but he can’t think of a single example of having done so. That’s me. I’m not sure that forgiveness is something I want to learn, either. If someone treats me badly, shouldn’t heightened vigilance and isolation simply be called learning? People can make mistakes and I’ll let that go, of course. (I’m Canadian.) But when malice is involved? Hell, no.


~ I am Robert Chazz Chute. I write apocalyptic epics and killer crime thrillers and I’m best known for This Plague of Days. My latest books are The Night Man and Amid Mortal Words.

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The War is Here

People often ask writers where their ideas come from. My answer, no matter how crazy the premise of the book, is real life. Here’s a look behind the curtain with a couple of my most recent books and why their origins are relevant to you.

Earlier this year, I released The Night Man, a thriller set in rural Michigan. It’s about people who go outside the law because of crushing medical debt and medical bankruptcy. (Think: Breaking Bad but with more German Shepherds.)

I believe medical care is a human right. Insurance agents with profit agendas shouldn’t get in the way of diagnosis and treatment by doctors. Nobody should be condemned to death or poverty because they get a scary diagnosis. No one should have to choose between seeing their doctor or paying rent. I was recently diagnosed with pneumonia and have seen many doctors for several problems over the last few months. I’d hate to think where I’d be if I had to choose between financial security and health!

In the United States, the richest nation on Earth, universal health care is often rejected out of hand because of the stigma of socialism. This is despite the fact that every other First World nation provides some form of universal health care to protect their citizens at lower cost and with better outcomes. Some patients even opt for suicide rather than burden their families with debt. How can this be? How can this still be?

Reality often fuels fiction. Unacceptable and challenging situations provide a context that readers can relate to. Powerful motivations make people do things they wouldn’t ordinarily do. So it is in The Night Man. Easy Jack’s father turns to smuggling to try to escape medical debt. Complications ensue and events spiral out of control.

Then came Amid Mortal Words. It is a story I did not intend to write. I have several books in my editorial pipeline and I thought I was done with apocalyptic books for a while. I was supposed to work on revisions to those stories first. However, Amid Mortal Words woke me at 4 a.m. every morning. It was a story that pestered me, insisting on being written. Writing the book was the only way to get some sleep and it turned into a wild story. I like it a lot and I hope you will, too.

The plot to Amid Mortal Words springs from a lot of anger I’ve observed in real life. Everywhere you look on social media, there’s a war on. It is a domestic war in the United States but it is not confined to American borders. Political norms have been shattered. Expectations have been lowered.

The currency in this war is hatred and fear. The consequences often translate into physical violence. Sexism is still thick on the ground and women’s rights are more endangered, not less. When called out for their racism, racists cry foul. Voting rights are suppressed and the democratic system undermined. Climate change isn’t a far off theory. Climate breakdown is here. As one character tells another in Amid Mortal Words, “It’s a fuckle.”

There are solutions to our problems. Some stand in the way. Thinking selfishly and short-term, there are many who believe that saving the planet, practicing empathy and accepting equality is too expensive, too impractical and bad for business. These folks act like the idea that we should care for each other is suspect. Ideals are out the window and it’s every mad dog for himself.

All this in 2019? We could have done better by now. We should have, but for those who are only out for themselves, sexism, racism, and many other ills are a feature, not a bug. It’s not that they don’t know better. It’s that they don’t care.

Personally, I’ve made a transition in my thinking. I used to believe that rational debate and better education would save everyone from the worst of us. I thought good ideas would win because it was in the common interest to have a society that works for everyone. I now accept that, in a strange way, I was underestimating people’s intelligence. Many people who support the actions of Donald Trump knew what they were doing when they elected him. They weren’t all fooled. They knew his long history of sexism and racism. It wasn’t that they were deceived. They got the candidate they wanted.

Now the United States is divided, not exactly down the middle but close. The rhetoric is harsh. I’ve heard Alex Jones call for decapitations (and then pull back from that call later, subtly.) I saw a comment on a thread where some nutbag called for a “cleanse” of libtards. There’s a fascinating podcast called It Could Happen Here that gives the odds of a new American civil war serious analysis and consideration. Subversion of the due process of law has turned a lot of conservatives into Banana Republicans.

And no, the vitriol is not equal on both sides. You can point to one or two lies by Obama while Trump is north of 10,000. He’s dangerous and is not in control of all his faculties. One day, assuming we’re lucky, we will look back on these days as very dark and dangerous times. America is not headed toward a constitutional crisis. It’s in one right now. The Democrats are, in general, responding weakly. The Republicans will back their guy right to the brink. It is so sad this devolution is happening because so many of us love America and its people. This is the nation that produced a top-notch space program, Iron Man and Spider-Man for God’s sake!

And so it came to pass that Amid Mortal Words posed the question: If you could get rid of everyone who is making the world a worse place, would you? What if you could do it simply by reading a book or reading the book to someone? And what if there is collateral damage? How many deaths of innocents are acceptable on the way to utopia?

I never set out to write a theme. Themes emerge in the writing. Otherwise, the story would devolve into preachy and boring. Though Amid Mortal Words is not a straight-up liberal revenge fantasy. It’s packed with action and mysteries. Respect is given where it is due. There are answers but they aren’t all easy answers. I’m talking about impact. AMW will move you. Some of those answers are going to leave readers thinking a long time after they close the book.

I think there’s something in these books for people no matter where they are on the political spectrum. Heh. I guess I do still hold out some hope that I’ll be able to change some people’s minds by bypassing their fear responses and entertaining them. No matter. You don’t have to agree with me to have a great time staying up all night, pulling your head into my books and turning pages.

I am, first and foremost, in the brain tickle business. My priority is telling an action-packed and interesting story that entertains you. My books can take some very fanciful turns at times but the core ideas are often rooted in reality. That foundation in what’s happening now is what makes the characters real, motivated and relatable. That’s certainly true of Amid Mortal Words and The Night Man. Despite all the violence, twists and mayhem in my books, there’s heart and meaning in the subtext that propels the plot.

I hope you take the time to check them out and enjoy them.

FREE EBOOK OFFER

For the next week, one of my books will be set to free each day. Check back each day to check out my Amazon author page to see which ones you want to pick up. Here’s the link.

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Beyond the Urgent Moment

Physically, 2019 has been hard on me. I’ve spent most of this year sick with one thing or another. I usually devote March Break to taking care of taxes. This year I spent it on my back with a terrible sinus infection. I’m still recovering and can’t do everything I need to do yet. However, I’m finally a bit more mobile. It’s been awful but also an opportunity to reevaluate where I’m steering my writing career and my meat wagon.

The first time I went into writing full-time was in 2011. I took a couple of years off from my day job to devote myself to writing and publishing. That was a productive time but my life was out of balance. I spent far too much time sitting. That’s an occupational hazard, of course. However, I took it beyond reason, often working on books 15 or even 18 hours a day. Crazy times. Also, my time management was so skewed that my family made a lot of sacrifices for Ex Parte Press. And by that, I mean they made financial sacrifices for me. I also didn’t spend as much time with them as I should have.

I wasn’t making any money then. I lived off an allowance from my sainted wife. $60 a week. I felt pressure to get on track financially, of course, so I became a workaholic. Money pressure doesn’t go away. I still feel it though it’s not the panic it once was (just constant, low-grade anxiety that makes me feel I have to prove myself and catch up for the lost years!) The dream is to get comfortable enough that I can take the family on a tropical vacation. I’m Canadian. I spend a lot of the year yearning for sugar sand beaches and palm trees.

I’ve been writing again full-time since July 1, 2018. I have rules about when I stop working each day now. I try to move more. Late last year I went through a boot camp in which I lost a lot of weight, ate healthily and got on track. It felt great. Then a few health issues hit and the stress eating began and I got off track. Well, okay, I flew off the track and killed all the spectators in the stands.

A while back, I finally got through all my medical tests. I tested negative for the health issues I thought I had. It was quite a relief but then I got hit with more illnesses and generally felt like crap all the time. I also fell back into some bad habits of overwork. I am currently working on a Lovecraftian novel called Amid Mortal Words. This one will be a stand-alone novel. I’m very happy with it but in my current condition I can’t pump it out to market as fast as I’d like. I’m working on the manuscript steadily again but now I expect it will be released sometime in April. Apologies to my wonderful editor for the delay in the publication schedule. I’m a bit furious about it but I’ll come to accept reality any second now. Yeah…any second…suuure.

Health and the habits that promote it have to come first. I learned that lesson before and let it go so I have to repeat the lesson again. I just got back from the grocery store, loaded up with healthy choices. No bad carbs, lots of vegetables, bone broth and hope that 2019 will ease its grip on me. I’ve had quite enough of feeling like shit all the time, thank you very much.

I write full-time and control my schedule. It’s still cold but no longer terrifying to go outside. Therefore, I have no excuses not to visit the gym daily. Diet and exercise will allow me to live longer and write longer. That’s how I’ll catch up: steady work and playing the long game.

When tragedy strikes someone, I send my condolences but I usually add, “And please take care of yourself.” In times of trouble or even just dealing with the daily grind, we often make ourselves a low priority. To take care of others, we have to take care of ourselves first. It’s not selfish. It’s smart. It should even be obvious but in the drive to succeed, we often sacrifice the wrong things or abandon long-term priorities for the urgent moment.

Lying on my back and being miserable for a week has reminded me about the order of my priorities. I’m back to playing the long game again because this is it. I write full-time for a living now. There is no going back to the day job. I love writing for a living. To live to write, a good diet and a healthy dose of exercise must be part of my writing regimen.

~ Hey! I’m Robert Chazz Chute. Sign up for my newsletter to get updates and deals on new books, buy my tomes of epic delight and twisty suspense (pretty please with a thunderous thank you) and happy reading!

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Coming soon: A New Apocalyptic Thriller

What if mere words could erase all the bad people in the world? What if billions of innocents would also die in the cull? On a night train bound for Chicago, Lt. Col. Zane Salvador meets an odd stranger who leaves behind a dangerous book. Now the future of the human race is in Zane’s hands. You’re in danger, too, Dear Reader.

Quick update:

Fighting a cold, I’m busy writing and revising my next apocalyptic thriller, Amid Mortal Words. Unlike the others, this one is a stand alone. It should be out next month. This is really fun and as the plot unfurled I figured out, hey, this falls under the categories of Lovecraftian/cosmic horror. I’m putting up excerpts in the private Facebook group, Fans of Robert Chazz Chute if you’re a reader who enjoys sneak peeks.

Does anyone remember John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness? My story is very different but at its heart is a book that drives people mad. There lies the connective tissue.

I’m off to dive back into more revisions. I love this story. I think you will, too. In the meantime, enjoy this look back at a sorely underrated Carpenter movie:

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Facebook Live! Polar Vortex Edition

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Were old SF movies better?

Since getting Roku, I’m getting the opportunity to see some old sci-fi movies. Most are pretty bad but one stands out as so good, firing on all cylinders, that I encourage you to check it out. It is The Day the Earth Caught Fire. What’s so striking about this film is how many parallels there are to our response to disasters generally and climate change in particular. As a writer of apocalyptic epics, I’m addicted to sci-fi about the end of the world. This is not one to miss.

The movie starts with a slow burn (no pun intended) in which a failed journalist walks through London. The city is ravaged by drought. The dry ground is cracked and the sun beats down on the city in a way we have never seen. Then we fade back 19 days to find out how things went so bad so quickly.

Released in 1961, this is SF with a conscience. The nuclear arms race is front of mind. Eventually, it comes out that simultaneous testing of atomic bombs has screwed up the planet. The Earth tilts eleven degrees and the equator has moved. Earthquakes, typhoons, fires and meteorological chaos ensues. First comes denial and things seem fairly okay for a while as the population is assured that all they have to do is cope and wait out the disaster. The initial mild reaction to things falling apart reminds me of On the Beach (1959). As things get worse, water shortages spread. The bloom of black markets and typhus follows. Then comes the civil unrest.

It’s a fascinating study in societal decay as seen through the eyes of journalists trying to report on the end of the world. To avoid panic, the world’s governments attempt to downplay the destruction of civilization as long as they can. Watching this movie I was disturbed by several of the bits of propaganda that felt eerily familiar in contemporary times. Though the science is a bit off and it feels a bit dated here and there, much of the dialogue is snappy. That helps the story move along quite well. I have a theory that old movies have better dialogue because they can’t rely on CGI as much as today’s movies do. Scripts were longer and the exchange of words was generally sharper then. Many of today’s movies seem to be made for an Instagram audience. (There’s only one Aaron Sorkin. People make fun of Sorkin’s affection for the “walk and talk” but the dialogue always sizzles with urgency.)

Finally, I can’t write about this movie without mentioning the accomplished English actress Janet Munro. She is a stunner who steals every scene she’s in. As the low-level whistleblower, it’s easy to imagine this is how the awful truth seeps out. I have an odd hobby when I watch old movies. I always look up the actors to see how they died. Janet Munro passed away at the age of only 38 of heart failure. I don’t mean to be morbid but to see how people so fit and fabulous knock off is a grim memento mori so, hey, carpe diem. Sad and true.

Check The Day the Earth Caught Fire* if you get the chance. Do not confuse it with The Day the Sky Exploded (1958) because WOW! That sucked. Also, if you haven’t already seen The Day the Earth Stood Still, stop reading this and go check it out immediately. (I mean the genre’s classic from 1951, not the 2008 remake with Keanu Reeves.) Add Logan’s Run (1976) and Silent Running (1972) while you’re at it.

I love old sci-fi. The special effects might seem quaint but there were many fun (and sometimes great) science fiction films that were made before CGI could do all the images justice.

*There sure were a lot of The Day the Blah Blah Did Something movies, weren’t there?